The main circuit board of a computer is called the motherboard, which is also known as the mainboard or logic board. It is the biggest piece of silicon found in the computer, and attached to it are the ROM, memory RAM, CPU, USB, expansion slots, PCI slots, and controllers for devices such as the DVD drive, hard drive, keyboard, and the mouse.

The motherboard makes everything work together on a computer. Doing a review about it is quite interesting since most of them are built that works perfectly for everybody, with almost the same physical features. But of course, many brands have innovated themselves and developed motherboards that are

Rich Reymonds of Windows Central publishes a review on the NZXT N7 Z490 motherboard, looking at each specification and doing an interesting review.

With the failure of NZXT's previous two motherboards, Z370 and Z390, everyone is asking how its Z490 would hold up to the competition of motherboards in the market.

Introducing the NZXT N7 Z490 Motherboard Designed For System Builders
(Photo: YouTube)
NZXT N7 Z490 Screenshot from Youtube/NZXT

The Specs

The latest motherboard of NZXT comes with the Intel Z490 chipset, which allows it to be compatible with the 10th Gen or the 11th Gen processors. It also includes four DDR4 DIMM slots capable of holding 128GB RAM with speeds of up to 4266MHz.

Moreover, the new motherboard has four SATA ports, two M.2 slots, three PCle x1 expansion slots, and two PCle x16 slots. The N7 Z490 also allows installation for either the latest RTX 30 series GPU or the older models with Z490's multi-GPU configuration. Not just that, the new motherboard also has a pre-installed WiFi M.2 card that can be upgraded.

N7 Z490 also has a host of ports for hooking up accessories, which includes one HDMI port, two SMA antenna connectors, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, two USB 2.0 ports, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, one 2.5 Gb, One SPDIF, and five audio jacks.

On the packaging side, NZXT makes sure that its customers would receive their motherboards in one piece with its tightly packed package with many padding around the board. The set also includes the necessary WiFi antenna, SATA cabling, and a manual.

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Features and Design

According to Reymonds' review, NZXT's newest motherboard looks incredible outside. The highlight of its design is the metal shrouding that covers large parts of the board. But it can be removed with a few screws in its underside. The metal shroud and VRM cooling system can also be painted with different colors the user desires to match the color scheme of the PC.

Moreover, the user may also use the custom designs NZXT releases but make sure that it is compatible with the N7 Z490 since it uses the new screws rather than the plastic caps.
Z490's M.2 slots are located on top of the GPU, and below the secondary x16 PCle slot, both covered by removable metal plates held on by plastic clips.

It is easier to create a clean look with N7 Z490 even when M.2 slots are full, RAM installed, and a beefy CPU cooler.

Performance

Reymonds tested the Z490 by making a test rig and has successfully achieved 5.0GHz at 1.35V without encountering any sort of problems. Plus, the BIOS has proven to be easy to use and has many options to configure how it performs.

Moreover, Reymonds also tested it in gaming and found that the results were in line with other motherboards that use a similar processor and GPU. With that said, the Z490 seems to be promising and rock-solid compared to previous designs of NZXT N7.

At the end of the day, its the motherboard's performance still matters regardless of its looks. Luckily with NZXT N7 Z490, users can have both looks and performance.

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